He’s been a janitor and a Denver Center ticket agent. And tonight he takes the stage in his Theatre Company debut.  

MEET GUSTAVO MÁRQUEZ
Gustavo Márquez, a member of the Native Gardens ensemble, is making his DCPA Theatre Company debut. He recently played the crazed, bug-eating servant Renfield in Dracula for the Aurora Fox (and Westword’s Juliet Wittman called him excellent at it). He played Cassius, Adriano and other roles (both in English and Spanish) in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s educational productions of The Comedy of Errors and Julius Caesar. He appeared in Local Lab’s controversial reading of The Merchant of Venice, and in the Colorado-born production of I Am Alive that played at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, Calif. Other stage credits include The Tempest, Metamorphoses, You Can’t Take It With You, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

• Hometown: Aurora
• Home now: Denver
• High School: Rangeview
• Training: BFA from Metropolitan State University of Denver
• What’s your handle? @gooosetee on Twitter and @goosetee on Instagram
• Twitter-sized bio: Shall I compare me to a summer’s day? Yes, yes, I will: I’m like a summer’s day!
• What would you be doing if you were not an actor? Many things! But a primatologist would be one. I’ve always been fascinated with apes, specifically chimpanzees, and how similar we are to them. And I find them to be adorable.
• One role you were completely miscast for: I played Monostatos in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Monostatos is a treacherous villain, and he is written as a Moor. Also, I am a tenor, and that character was clearly meant to be a baritone. But I pulled it off.
• Bucket-list role: Usnavi from In the Heights
• What’s playing on your Spotify? FKA TWIGS (pictured right) and Princess Nokia do wonders to the soul.
• What’s one thing we don’t know about you? I was a 19-year-old janitor in Antarctica.
• What’s one thing we already know about you, but other people probably don’t: I have been working in the Denver Center’s box office as a ticket agent since 2016. 
• And what does Native Gardens Director Lisa Portes have to say about that? “I think it’s going to be such a treat for those audiences who may have bought their ticket from Gustavo to then see him in the play, because he brings such beautiful life to the stage. And I will tell you a little secret: When we were looking for pre-show music in Spanish having to do with gardens, Gustavo emailed me a list of songs. So those are his.” 
• One time you saw greatness play out in front of you: I saw The Phantom of the Opera at the Buell Theatre in Denver when I was in high school back in 2009. The Phantom was singing “Music of the Night,” and right when he was about to sing his last note of the song, the sound went out. What happened after was nothing short of amazing. The actor, John Cudia, was able to fill the whole theatre with sound using just his unamplified voice. What I realized in that moment was pure, focused talent that I could attain as well, with hard work. (Photo: John Cudia and Trista Moldovan in the 2009 touring production of ‘The Phantom of the Opera.’ Photo by Cylla Von Tiedemann.)
  
• One thing we should be doing to foster the next generation of theatregoers? The next generation of theatregoers will be the most diverse this country has ever seen. It is important that what is presented on stage is just as diverse as they are.
• What is Native Gardens all about? Karen Zacarías‘ play is about a young Latino couple who move into a well-established D.C. neighborhood. Though their neighbors have the best intentions, their newly budding friendship is tested when they realize their shared property line isn’t where it’s supposed to be.
• Why does Native Gardens matter? Because it teaches us that we can improve as a society despite our society’s past actions. Even if we, or our past generations have transgressed against each other, we must learn from those past events and experiences and improve. Don’t feel guilty for what your ancestors did or how they behaved, just change the way you are living now.
• What do you hope audiences get out of seeing Native Gardens? That we must forgive the past by improving the present to make the future better for all.
• What do you want to get off your chest? I enjoy American Chinese food more than Mexican food. And I feel so blasphemous saying that!

More Colorado theatre coverage on the DCPA NewsCenter

The company of the DCPA Theatre Company’s ‘Native Gardens.’ Photo by Adams Viscom for the DCPA NewsCenter.) 

Native Gardens: Ticket information
Dealing with neighbors can be thorny, especially for Pablo and Tania, a young Latino couple who have just moved into a well-established D.C. neighborhood. Though Frank and Virgina have the best intentions for making the new couple feel welcome next door, their newly budding friendship is tested when they realize their shared property line isn’t where it’s supposed to be. Frank is afraid of losing his prized garden, Pablo wants what is legally his, Tania has a pregnancy and a thesis she’d rather be worrying about, and Virginia just wants some peace. But until they address the real roots of their problems, it’s all-out war in this heartfelt play about the lines that divide us and those that connect us.

• Presented by DCPA Theatre Company
• Performances through May 6
• Space Theatre, Denver Performing Arts Complex
• Call 303-893-4100 or BUY ONLINE

Previous NewsCenter coverage of Native Gardens:

• Photos, cast list: Native Gardens draws line in the soil
• Meet Jordan Baker: ‘It’s hard to listen when the message is a brick’
• Five things we learned at Perspectives: ‘You can smell the dirt’
• Meet Gia Valverde: Denver native finds a home in Native Gardens

More 2017-18 ‘In the Spotlife’ profiles:

• Meet Jake Mendes of This is Modern Art
• Meet Ilasiea L. Gray of Sleeping Beauty
• Meet Candy Brown of Love Letters
• Meet Christy Brandt of Creede Rep’s Arsenic and Old Lace
• Meet Deb Persoff of Vintage Theatre’s August: Osage County
• Meet Monica Joyce Thompson of Inspire Creative’s South Pacific
• Meet Hugo Jon Sayles of I Don’t Speak English Only
• Meet Marialuisa Burgos of I Don’t Speak English Only